A a star that is close to the north celestial pole B a star that is close to the south celestial pole C a star that is visible from the Arctic or Antarctic circles D a star that always r
Trang 1MULTIPLE CHOICE Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.
1) Which of the following statements about the celestial equator is true at all latitudes?
A) It extends from your horizon due east, through your zenith, to your horizon due west
B) It represents an extension of Earth's equator onto the celestial sphere
C) It extends from your horizon due north, through your zenith, to your horizon due south
D) It lies along the band of light we call the Milky Way
E) It cuts the dome of your local sky exactly in half
1)
2) When we look into the band of light in our sky that we call the Milky Way, can we see distant
galaxies? Why or why not?
A) No, because the stars, gas, and dust of the Milky Way block us from seeing them
B) Yes, there are many other galaxies that we see inside the Milky Way
C) Yes, they appear as small, fuzzy patches on the other side of our galaxy
D) No, because there are only galaxies above and below the plane of the Milky Way
2)
3) If it is midnight in New York, it is
A) midnight everywhere
B) daytime in Sydney, Australia
C) midnight in Los Angeles
D) midnight in Sydney, Australia
E) midday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
3)
4) How many arcseconds are in one degree?
4)
5) What is a circumpolar star?
A) a star that is close to the north celestial pole
B) a star that is close to the south celestial pole
C) a star that is visible from the Arctic or Antarctic circles
D) a star that always remains above your horizon
E) a star that makes a daily circle around the celestial sphere
5)
6) Which of the following statements about circumpolar stars is true at all latitudes?
A) They make relatively small circles, traveling clockwise around the north celestial pole
B) They are the stars close to the north celestial pole
C) You cannot see them from the Southern Hemisphere
D) They always remain above your horizon
E) Like all other stars, they rise in the east and set in the west
6)
7) What makes the North Star, Polaris, special?
A) It is the star straight overhead
B) It is the brightest star in the sky
C) It appears very near the north celestial pole
D) It can be used to determine your longitude on Earth
E) It is the star directly on your northern horizon
7)
Trang 28) You are standing on Earth's equator Which way is Polaris, the North star?
A) on the northern horizon
B) 30 degrees up, due West
C) directly overhead
D) The answer depends on whether it's winter or summer
E) The answer depends on what time of day (or night) it is
8)
9) By locating the north celestial pole (NCP) in the sky, how can you determine your latitude?
A) The altitude of the NCP is the same as your distance from the North Pole
B) The altitude of the NCP is the same as your latitude
C) The altitude of the NCP is your angular distance from the North Pole
D) The direction of the NCP is the angular distance from the North Pole
E) The direction of the NCP is the same as your latitude
9)
10) Orion is visible on winter evenings but not summer evenings because of
A) baseball on television
B) the precession of Earth's axis
C) the tilt of Earth's axis
D) interference from the full moon
E) the location of Earth in its orbit
10)
11) Why is it summer in the Northern Hemisphere when it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere?
A) The Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun and receives more indirect sunlight
B) The Northern Hemisphere is "on top" of Earth and therefore receives more sunlight
C) The Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun and receives more direct sunlight
D) The Northern Hemisphere is closer to the Sun than the Southern Hemisphere
E) It isn't; both hemispheres have the same seasons at the same time
11)
12) Which of the following statements is true?
A) Both the Northern and Southern hemispheres receive the same amount of sunlight on the
equinoxes
B) The Southern Hemisphere receives the most direct sunlight on the summer solstice
C) The Northern Hemisphere receives the most direct sunlight on the summer solstice
D) Both the Northern and Southern hemispheres receive the same amount of sunlight on the
solstices
E) Both A and C are true
12)
13) Which of the following statements about constellations is false?
A) Most constellations will be unrecognizable hundreds of years from now
B) There are only 88 official constellations
C) It is possible to see all the constellations from Earth's equator
D) Some constellations can be seen in both the winter and summer
E) Some constellations can be seen from both the Northern and Southern hemispheres
13)
14) Which of the following statements about lunar phases is true?
A) It is possible to have two full moons during January, but not during February
B) The time from one new moon to the next new moon is the same as the time from
first-quarter moon to third-quarter moon
C) The full moon sometimes rises around midnight
D) The time between new moons is two weeks
E) It is possible to have two full moons during November, but not during December
14)
Trang 315) Which of the following is not a phase of the Moon?
16) When someone on Earth observes the Moon in the first-quarter phase, someone on the Moon
facing Earth observes Earth in the
A) new Earth phase
B) first-quarter Earth phase
C) third-quarter Earth phase
D) crescent Earth phase
E) full Earth phase
20) At approximately what time would a full moon be on your meridian?
20)
21) At approximately what time would a first quarter moon rise?
Trang 423) In which direction does a quarter moon rise?
24) Which of the following statements about the Moon is true?
A) If you see a full moon from North America, someone in South America would see a new
moon
B) The Moon is visible only at night
C) The Moon's distance from Earth varies during its orbit
D) The Moon goes through a cycle of phases because it always has the same side facing Earth
E) The side of the Moon facing away from Earth is in perpetual darkness
24)
25) What effect or effects would be most significant if the Moon's orbital plane were exactly the same
as the ecliptic plane?
A) Solar eclipses would be much rarer
B) Solar eclipses would be much more frequent
C) Total solar eclipses would last much longer
D) both A and C
E) both B and C
25)
26) What conditions are required for a solar eclipse?
A) The phase of the Moon can be new or full, and the nodes of the Moon's orbit must be nearlyaligned with Earth and the Sun
B) The phase of the Moon must be full, and the Moon's orbital plane must lie in the ecliptic
C) The phase of the Moon must be new, and the Moon's orbital plane must lie in the ecliptic
D) The phase of the Moon must be full, and the nodes of the Moon's orbit must be nearly
aligned with Earth and the Sun
E) The phase of the Moon must be new, and the nodes of the Moon's orbit must be nearly
aligned with Earth and the Sun
26)
27) What conditions are required for a lunar eclipse?
A) The phase of the Moon can be new or full, and the nodes of the Moon's orbit must be nearlyaligned with Earth and the Sun
B) The phase of the Moon must be new, and the nodes of the Moon's orbit must be nearly
aligned with Earth and the Sun
C) The phase of the Moon must be full, and the Moon's orbital plane must lie in the ecliptic
D) The phase of the Moon must be new, and the Moon's orbital plane must lie in the ecliptic
E) The phase of the Moon must be full, and the nodes of the Moon's orbit must be nearly
aligned with Earth and the Sun
27)
28) In addition to the conditions required for any solar eclipse, what must also be true in order for you
to observe a total solar eclipse?
A) Earth must lie completely within the Moon's penumbra
B) The Moon's penumbra must touch the area where you are located
C) Earth must lie completely within the Moon's umbra
D) Earth must be near aphelion in its orbit of the Sun
E) The Moon's umbra must touch the area where you are located
28)
Trang 529) If part of the full moon passes through Earth's umbra, we will see a(n)
A) partial solar eclipse
B) annular eclipse
C) penumbral lunar eclipse
D) total lunar eclipse
E) partial lunar eclipse
29)
30) If the Moon is relatively far from Earth, so that its umbra does not reach Earth, someone directly
behind the umbra will see
A) an annular eclipse
B) a partial solar eclipse
C) a partial lunar eclipse
B) in the spring and fall
C) when the nodes of the Moon's orbit are nearly aligned with the Sun
D) when Earth, the Sun, and the Moon are exactly aligned for an eclipse
E) in the summer and winter
31)
32) The precession of the Moon's nodes means that
A) the vernal equinox will be in Aquarius in a few hundred years
B) there is a lunar eclipse every 6 months
C) the eclipse seasons occur less than 6 months apart
D) there are never two solar eclipses in the same year
E) there is a solar eclipse every 6 months
32)
33) Ancient people who knew the saros cycle could
A) predict what type of eclipse would occur
B) predict when they'd see the next total solar eclipse in their area
C) predict when an eclipse would happen, but not necessarily what type and where it would bevisible
D) completely predict every solar eclipse
E) completely predict every lunar eclipse
33)
34) What happens during the apparent retrograde motion of a planet?
A) The planet appears to move eastward with respect to the stars over a period of many nights.B) The planet moves through constellations that are not part of the zodiac
C) The planet moves backward in its orbit around the Sun
D) The planet moves backward through the sky
E) The planet rises in the west and sets in the east
34)
Trang 635) What causes the apparent retrograde motion of the planets?
A) Apparent retrograde motion is an illusion created by turbulence in Earth's atmosphere
B) When planets are farther from the Sun, they move slower than when they are nearer the
Sun; it is during this slower period that they appear to move backwards
C) As Earth passes another planet, the other planet appears to move backward with respect to
the background stars, but the planet's motion does not really change
D) The other planets never really appear to move backward; the background stars shift due to
Earth's revolution around the Sun
E) As Earth passes another planet, its gravitational pull slows down the other planet so that it
appears to be traveling backward
35)
36) Which of the following never goes in retrograde motion?
36)
37) Which of the following statements about parallax is not true?
A) The existence of stellar parallax is direct proof that Earth orbits the Sun
B) Measurement of stellar parallax allows us to determine distances to nearby stars
C) The technique of stellar parallax was used by Hubble to determine that the Andromeda
Galaxy (M 31) is about 2 million light-years away
D) Ancient astronomers were unable to measure parallax and used the absence of observed
parallax as an argument in favor of an Earth-centered universe
E) You can demonstrate parallax simply by holding up a finger and looking at it alternately
from your left and right eyes
37)
38) Which of the following statements about stellar parallax is true?
A) We observe all stars to exhibit at least a slight amount of parallax
B) The closer a star is to us, the more parallax it exhibits
C) It takes at least 10 years of observation to measure a star's parallax
D) The amount of parallax we see depends on how fast a star is moving relative to us
E) Stellar parallax was first observed by ancient Greek astronomers
38)
39) We can't detect stellar parallax with naked-eye observations Which of the following would makeparallax easier to observe?
A) slowing down Earth's orbital motion
B) getting away from streetlights
C) Speeding up the precession of Earth's axis
D) speeding up Earth's orbital motion
E) increasing the size of Earth's orbit
39)
40) Why were ancient peoples unable to detect stellar parallax?
A) They did not have the ability to measure very small angles
B) They did not look for it
C) They could not see distant stars
D) They did not observe for long enough periods of time
E) They did detect it, but they rejected the observations
Trang 743) Has Polaris always been the "North Star"?
A) No, because it is a young star that only formed a few hundred years ago
B) No, because the Earth's axis slowly changes the direction it points
C) No, because the Milky Way blocked our line of site to it for a long time
D) Yes, because the stars are unchanging
43)
44) If you see Polaris directly overhead at midnight, you must be at
44)
45) You experience night-time when
A) the side of the Earth you occupy is facing away from the Sun
B) the Earth's axis precesses
C) the Earth revolves 90 degrees in its orbit
D) the Moon blocks the Sun's light
45)
46) If the Moon is setting at noon, then it rose at
46)
TRUE/FALSE Write 'T' if the statement is true and 'F' if the statement is false.
47) In South Africa, it's usually quite warm around the time of the December solstice and quite cool
around the time of the June solstice.
59) The Moon and Sun are approximately the same physical size 59)
Trang 8ESSAY Write your answer in the space provided or on a separate sheet of paper.
60) Models in Science: Models play a central role in astronomy and science in general Two models used extensively
in this chapter are the celestial sphere and the heliocentric (Sun-centered) model for the solar system
Astronomers clearly believe that the celestial sphere model is false and the heliocentric model is true Given this,
why do you think astronomers persist in using the celestial sphere model to describe the night sky?
61) Cognitive Dissonance? You are talking to a friend who insists that the seasons are caused by a varying Earth-Sun
distance over the course of a year What other fact does your friend likely know that completely contradicts thisview of how the seasons are caused? Can you think of other examples of two beliefs that many people feel areboth true but which completely contradict each other? How does science view this situation?
62) The Sidereal Day: Using your wristwatch and observations of the night sky over the course of a few weeks, how
can you demonstrate to a friend that 24 hours cannot be the true rotation period of the Earth (often called thesidereal day)? What assumptions do you make in this argument?
63) Scientific Reasoning: The scientific method requires that we put any hypothesis about how the universe works to
the test by conducting observations of the natural world Consider the Greek reaction to the idea of a
heliocentric (Sun-centered) solar system Why did most Greeks reject this hypothesis in favor of the geocentric(Earth-centered) model? Do you think that the Greeks were following a scientific form of reasoning to reach
this conclusion? Does the fact that the Greeks reached the wrong conclusion affect your answer?
SHORT ANSWER Write the word or phrase that best completes each statement or answers the question.
The choices below are for the following questions For each question, choose the letter for the real motion that is responsible for the apparent motion as seen from Earth.
A Earth rotates once each day
B Earth revolves around the Sun once each year
C The direction of Earth's axis in space precesses with a period of 26,000 years
D Stars appear to move randomly in the local solar neighborhood
E The universe is expanding
64) Polaris will no longer be the North Star 1,000 years from now 64)
65) In the year A.D 15,000, Vega will be a better north star than Polaris 65)
66) The Big Dipper will look different 100,000 years from now than it does today 66)
68) The stars of Orion's belt rise in the east and set in the west 68)
69) A million years from now, Alpha Centauri will no longer be the nearest star system to our
own
69)
70) The stars visible at night change over the course of the year 70)
71) The stars visible just after sunset are different from those visible just before sunrise 71)
Trang 972) If Earth's axis had no tilt, would we still have seasons? Why or why not? 72)
73) Consider the following statement, and explain whether or not it is sensible: If you had a
very fast spaceship, you could travel to the celestial sphere in about 100 years
75) Why does the Milky Way appear as a band of light in the sky? 75)
76) Consider the following statement, and explain whether or not it is sensible: Although all
the known stars appear to rise in the east and set in the west, we might someday discover
a star that will appear to rise in the west and set in the east
76)
77) At what altitude and in what direction in your sky does the north or south celestial pole
appear?
77)
78) Consider the following statement, and explain whether or not it is sensible: My sign is
Ursa Major because the Sun was in Ursa Major when I was born
78)
79) Consider the following statement, and explain whether or not it is sensible: Last night I
saw Jupiter in the constellation Ursa Major
79)
80) Answer each of the following questions for our local sky
A Where is the north celestial pole in our sky?
B Is Polaris a circumpolar star in our sky? Explain
C Describe the meridian in our sky
D Describe the celestial equator in our sky
83)
84) Suppose you lived on the Moon near the center of the face that we see from Earth At
what phase of the Moon would you see sunset? What phase of Earth would you see at thistime?
84)
85) Suppose you lived on the Moon near the center of the face that we see from Earth At
what phase of the Moon would you see sunrise? What phase of Earth would you see at
this time?
85)
Trang 1086) What would you see if you were on the near side of the Moon during a lunar eclipse? 86)
87) Why is the Moon not completely invisible (it appears as a very deep red color) to the
naked eye during a total lunar eclipse?
87)
88) What would you see on Earth if you were on the near side of the Moon during a solar
eclipse?
88)
89) Suppose the distance to the Moon were twice its actual value Could we still have solar
eclipses? If so, what type(s)?
89)
90) Consider the following statement, and explain whether or not it is sensible: Last night I
saw Mars move westward through the sky in its apparent retrograde motion
90)
MULTIPLE CHOICE Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.
91) If the Earth's rotation axis were tilted by 45 degrees instead of 23.5 degrees, what are some of the
implications, and why?
A) The seasons would be more extreme, because the surface of the Earth would be closer to theSun in the summer, and farther from the Sun in the winter
B) The seasons would be more extreme, because the Sun's rays would be more direct in
summer, and less direct in winter
C) The seasons would be less extreme, because the surface of the Earth would be farther from
the Sun in the summer, and closer to the Sun in the winter
D) The seasons would be less extreme, because the Sun's rays would be less direct in summer,
and more direct in winter
91)
92) You see a crescent Moon setting after the Sun sets Is it waning or waxing?
A) can't distinguish based on the information provided
A) Vega and RXJ1800 must be very close to each other, less than a few light years
B) Vega orbits the center of mass of RXJ1800
C) RXJ1800 and Vega will drift apart from each other on the sky, over a matter of nights
D) RXJ1800 and Vega will set in the west, at very similar times
93)
94) If the Sun passes almost in front of the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, it does so
A) only in 2012, at the end of the Mayan calendar
B) once a day
C) once a year
D) once a month
94)
95) The Greeks rejected the notion that the Earth orbits the Sun Why?
A) They could not measure a change in stars' positions on the sky
B) They believed that the Sun is a God
C) They weren't as smart as we are
D) They could not measure how big the Earth was
95)